Poetry by Erica Jong

The best slave

does not need to be beaten.

She beats herself.

Erica Jong, "Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit"

I have been working my way through "The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women" edited by Susan Gilbert and Susan Gubar.  Of course, my route through this 2500-page tome is not linear.  (I cannot imagine reading this on a Kindle unless the newer versions allow for serendipitous discoveries by just flipping through the pages.)

     In my arbitrary ramble through the anthology I ran across two poems by Jong.  I recently purchased "Fear of Flying" but am struggling to connect with and complete the book.  So, I was intrigued to find that Jong has published seven books of poetry.  Gilbert and Gubar chose two to include in the anthology, "Castration of the Pen" and "Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit."  I found other poems on www.ericajong.com and a video of Jong reading a couple of poems from from her newest book of poetry, "Love Comes First."

     I agree with Jong that poetry and poets have been marginalized, but I have always liked bits of poetry  even if I have only an elementary background in it (see more about poetry at Cleaving).  The three poems I read of Jong's are in free verse, a form that I think contemporary readers find more comfortable because of a seeming lack of structure but which provides an added opportunity for expression.

      The two poems Gilbert and Gubar selected are about writing.  When I started reading "Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit" I hadn't read the title or dedication first; I just dove into the first few lines shown above.  It was not until halfway through the poem that I realized the "slave" was an woman writer, not a human owned by another human.  I felt a little cheated because it was those first three lines, found by chance, that led me to stop on this page and read.  If I had instead had read the dedication first, I would have guest the purpose of the poem:  In Memoriam Marina Tsvetayeva, Anna Whickham, Sylvia Plath, Shakespeare's sister, etc., etc.  The reference is to poets, all women and, presumably from the poem, all suicides. The poet referred to by Jong in the verses is tougher on herself than her critics are to the point of having to take her own life for fear of her own genius.

     "Castration of the pen" brings to mind the first line of "Madwoman in the Attic," also by Gilbert and Gubar, which likens the pen to the penis.  In Jong's poem, however, the question is whether the pen is a penis, probing "the cunts of girls" or rather a breast "suckling babies/with the bluest,/blackest milk."  The merits and foibles of the pen, as if it did its own writing, are enumerated, and possibly imply that the pen is mighty when it is wielded by a woman and when fails it in a man's hand.  Ultimately, it is best to cut it out altogether, which leaves one to wonder how the poem could be written if we did.

     The last poem that I read was found on Jong's website and from the book "Fruits and Vegetables."  It is a study of an onion - "I am thinking of an onion again..."  As nutty as this might seem, I think I might have written this poem.  I must have diced hundreds of onions in my life - which I always do by hand, not by machine - and my meditations have often taken the same directions as much of this poem.  The difference, though, is that Jong wrote down her thoughts and did so in a way that passed muster with a publisher.

     As said, I enjoy bits and pieces of poetry, but cannot imagine reading an entire book of it.  At least not at one sitting - poetry is better savored a little at a time.

     You can find more Jong Poetry at http://www.ericajong.com/poems/index.html including "Alcestis on the Poetry Circuit."